Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

My name is Felicha Martin and my business is Especially Cards. I have a home-based greeting card business. My company`s vision is to provide greeting cards and gifts that touch the hearts and lives of people. Mission is that we are committed to providing the best products and services of highest quality and value. The website`s goal is to inform and persuade customers . We want to educate customers about who we are and show them products that we offer for purchase. My issue is that my site has been running since September 2007 and it`s not generating much business. People are visiting the site but not purchasing. I want people to purchase when they visit the site. I had the site created by a web service. I am thinking whether or not the problem is the site itself. I would appreciate all the help that I can get.

Thank you,

Felicha Martin

www.especiallycards.com

felicha@especiallycards.com

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Felicha Martin
Especially Cards
Cards & Gifts that touch the hearts and lives of people.

Felicha, your website and cards look great!
Best of luck to you and your card business.




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TS Donnely
San Francisco, CA
Your #1 FM Popp(News) Agent
A Snapshot of Today`s Financial News
TS@FMPOPP.COM
www.fmpopp.com

Nice looking pages, and products. You clarify quickly what your product is. However, you really don`t state why your products benefit your visitors. What are the benefits to me of ordering $3.00 cards through your site vs. stopping by the local drugstore to pick one up? The local store has thousands to choose from, and I can pick them up for a better view, whereas all I see on your site are small thumbnails, nothing I can see a close up of.

You have an "About Us" page; there really isn`t a purpose of stating much of the same on the main page. Instead, use this area for something more beneficial.... why I should want it, contact information, special deals, anything to help sell me on you and your product.

I don`t see any information on shipping policies, returns, general guarantees, etc.

Do you only ship the products to the person making the purchase? What about direct sending to the person that will be receiving it? Allow the buyer to include a message, addresses, etc., then mail it directly to the person they intended it for, saving mailing time and postage for your buyer. Just an option that may help.

What about specials? Like, buy 2 and get a third free. Bulk pricing. Something that lets your potential buyers feel like they are getting a truly good bargain that encourages them to purchase.

Your pages could use some SEO help. Add alt tags to the images. create unique titles for every page, and add meta descriptions. You also have an excessive amount of tables that increase your page code, many of which you could eliminate ( your address in the left column of the main page, for example ). That alone isn`t a big deal, but when everything is wrapped in a lot of tables, your code to content ratio often suffers.
Web Page Size : 14337 Bytes = 14 KB
Code Size : 12936 Bytes = 13 KB
Text Size : 1401 Bytes = 1 KB
Code to Text Ratio : 9.77 %

Work on getting inbound links from related sites, i.e., gift sites, to help build traffic.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

On suggestion:

On your front page, you go into that bit about your company. The thing is ... it`s not a good copywriting practice. On your front page, you want to talk about the benefits to ME (the reader), not talk about yourself. So talk about how the cards are perfect for my every occasion, announce sales, that sort of thing.

For more info: Copywriting Article

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

I`ll add to Rich`s comment that I want to see the cards clearly. I clicked on Birthday cards, for the category, which took me to the shopping area. I couldn`t see the cards, so I clicked one. Nothing happened...no larger image or anything. I lost interest.

Additionally, you`re competing with Hallmark`s free "send-a-card" business. So "Webline" (Michael) makes an important point. What`s the *compelling* reason for me to use your site, rather than just pick up a card at the local supermarket while I`m shopping?

It comes down to branding, in my mind. Do you have a particular line of cards? Do you create these cards yourself?

Here`s a free idea from my sister, who spent a lot of time with my father during is last days (cancer). She noticed there weren`t any cards to give to people on a daily or weekly basis that acknowledge their fatal predicament. Perhaps if you have unusual cards that fill a niche nobody`s catering to that would build your sales?

I agree with the idea of being able to get a larger view of the images. It is pretty simple to add JS or CSS scripts for a "Lightbox" type of effect, like what you can see on this page by clicking on the images.

http://www.rv-sinks.com/Undermount-Kitchen-Sinks.php

( Thats not trying to promote a website, just showing a sample using a site I`m familiar with ).



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons